Chocolate Bar

By Anne Rothwell

 

As we approached the boat, we heard our names being called over the loudspeaker. They were almost ready to sail and we were the only people missing - not that we’d forgotten the time, but we’d just been getting into the swing of things with some local people and were loath to leave.
 

"We were in Sevastopol and had been sitting in a little bar on the quayside. We’d got into the habit of drinking Russian champagne, which was very good and very cheap. This bar was a little different. When we ordered, they wanted to know whether we wanted chocolate. Seeing the look of bemusement on our faces, the waiter disappeared, returning with a tray containing a box of chocolates and a bar of plain chocolate. We chose the bar and found it a very enjoyable accompaniment to the bubbly.

We then got into ‘conversation’ with a group on the next table, who’d been watching us with interest. With barely a word of common language, we managed to get very friendly with them and were soon roaring with laughter, which always seems to happen when we’re communicating with exaggerated signs and even drawing. Eventually I looked at my watch and decided that we really must go, in spite of the fact that they were doing their best to persuade us to forget the boat and stay with them. We ran up the gangplank and straight up to the top deck to wave goodbye to our new friends as we sailed away.
 

Although ocean cruising has never appealed to me, we’ve found river cruises very enjoyable. You’re always in sight of land and can spend much more time ashore, soaking up the culture. Here in the Crimea the previous evening, we’d been to see the Black Sea Band singers - a great male choir singing rousing Russian songs and sounding very similar to the group we’d seen Michael Palin singing with in his epic series ‘Full Circle’.
 



Opera House, Odessa

We’d already visited Odessa, where we climbed the huge Potemkin staircase and went to see ‘Madame Butterfly’ in the beautiful Opera House, designed by a Viennese architect, where the tickets cost the equivalent of around £2 for visitors and 60p for locals. We’ve found that culture is very accessible to the local people in all the Russian and former Russian states that we’ve visited. Also in Odessa, we’d seen the Memorial to the Unknown Sailor, with four schoolchildren on guard at the corners, both boys and girls in uniform.  They were allowed out of school for this duty and at hourly intervals, a new group came goosestepping down to replace them.
 

We still had Yalta to look forward to, among other places, and a return to Kiev whence we’d started. And now, years later, whenever we have anything to celebrate, it’s down to the shop for a bottle of Cava and a bar of Cadbury’s Bourneville.

First published in VISA 106